Leicester City have officially announced the former Hearts head coach Craig Levein as their new manager.

Earlier on Friday, the two clubs came to an agreement over compensation for the 40-year-old's services.

He has signed a two-and-a-half year contract and will take in the game against Cardiff on Saturday.

"There is only one reason for my decision and it is my ambition to manage in England and get into the Premiership," he said.

"It was hard to say goodbye to some good friends and people I enjoyed working with immensely, and particularly the players who gave me the opportunity to join
such a fantastic club as Leicester.

"For a year or so now I've been looking, and I realised to get to the English Premiership, where I wanted to be, it would be difficult to do that from a provincial club, which Hearts are.

"I've been looking for a club with the same ambition as I have, and the recent history of Leicester would dictate that they are a Premiership club.

"I'm very confident that we match each other's ambition and we can move forward together."

We managed to turn Hearts into a successful club and I want to do the same with Leicester

Craig Levein

Levein stressed that instant success was not something he could promise the club's supporters.

"I want to bring in players that supporters can identify with, to improve and continually try to make Leicester a force to be reckoned with," he added.

"It will take a few weeks, maybe a few months to get a handle on things.

"Leicester supporters can judge me from what they see on the field. If we get improvement from the players we've got and the players we get in then I'll be happy.

"All I've tried to do in my two previous clubs is to improve the side, that improvement at Hearts was year on year and we managed to turn Hearts into a successful club - and I want to do the same with Leicester."

Levein confirmed Peter Houston, his number two at Hearts, will be part of his management team at Leicester although he is looking to employ staff with knowledge of English football.

"Obviously I know a fair bit about the English first division (Coca-Cola Championship) but not as much as someone who works here on a regular basis," added Levein.

"My assistant manager will be someone with knowledge of English football in
general, I think that it's important that I recognise, as much as I know about
the English game, there are people who know a lot more than me.

"So that will happen, but I'm confident in my own knowledge of football and
there isn't an enormous difference in the style of football from Scotland and
England. And I'm confident that I can do the job."